Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Few Photos Of Dark Skin Hinders Care For Blacks, Latinos, Dermatologists Say
Stat: Lack Of Darker Skin In Textbooks, Journals Harms Patients Of Color
When dermatologist Jenna Lester learned that rashes on skin and toes were a symptom of Covid-19, she started searching the medical literature for images of what the rashes looked like on Black skin so she’d recognize it in her Black patients. She couldn’t find a single picture. (McFarling, 7/21)
Kaiser Health News: NIH Project Homes In On COVID Racial Disparities
While the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on Black and Hispanic Americans is no secret, federal officials have launched studies of the disparity that they hope will better prepare the country for the next great epidemic. The National Institutes of Health began the ambitious “All of Us” research project in 2018 with the goal of enrolling at least a million people in the world’s most diverse health database. Officials saw it as an antidote to medical research that traditionally has skewed heavily white, well-off and male. (Gold, 7/21)
Stateline: Pandemic Threatens Black Middle-Class Gains
The Black middle class has made strides in recent years toward economic parity with whites in 34 states, a new Stateline analysis has found. But the pandemic threatens that progress, as Black professionals and businessowners lose their livelihoods at greater rates than their white counterparts. (Henderson, 7/21)
